Hollywood Product - Beerfest

A special kind of training

Genre: Low-budget comedy

The Pitch: Two American brothers travel to Germany to scatter their grandfather’s ashes at Oktoberfest, and end up stumbling upon an international “beer Olympics” of sorts. They get embarrassed and disrespected by the German team, which inspires them to return to America, round up a team of their own and train for a year, hoping to go back the following year and out-drink the Germans in the name of their family’s honor.

Money Shots: After a hard night of training (finishing an entire keg), Landfill (Kevin Heffernan) lies, belly-up, on the kitchen floor with his head in the refrigerator. His wife thinks he’s dead, but really he just passed out — eating an entire ham.

Best Line: Barry Badrinath (Jay Chandrasekhar) says of the beer the team just brewed: “It’s so good, I wish it were winter and we could make it into ice blocks and skate on it, and then melt it in the springtime and drink it.”

Flesh Factor: As you could imagine of any film featuring drunken debauchery, there is no shortage of exposed boobies.

Celebrity Cameos: Willie Nelson shows up at the end to participate in a different competition that possibly hints at a sequel: Potfest!

Core Cast: Beerfest stars and was written by the Broken Lizard team. Comprising five guys who all met at Colgate University, the group wrote and starred in Puddle Cruiser, Super Troopers and Club Dread, which earned them a three-year contract with Warner Bros.

Product Placement: Surprisingly enough, there was no major beer sponsor for this film. Broken Lizard pitched to all of the major companies, who “wanted no part in it, due to irresponsible use of their product,” even though the film never shows drunk driving.

Bottom Line: This movie is everything one would expect it to be — a stupid drinking film built upon a clever premise that leaves the audience drunk with laughter. 3 stars